TRANSACTIONS OF NORTHERN ILL. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 303 



railroad ties. No way of making a railroad track has been found to 

 answer the purpose so well as that of laying the rails upon cross timbers; 

 consequently, while railroads exist the demand for ties must be very 

 great. In Great Britain the Larch is used for this purpose in preference 

 to any other wood. The shape of the tree renders it peculiarly fit for 

 ties — when closely grown, it is tall, straight, destitute of large branches, 

 and tapering very gradually from the base. The wood, beside being very 

 durable, is solid, giving a firm hold to spikes. Another advantage is the 

 much greater quantity of timber which may be obtained from any given 

 number of acres of Larch than of most other trees. If we may believe 

 English writers, ten acres of Larch will afford as great a quantity of ship 

 timber as seventy-five acres of Oak. Larch can be grown more thickly 

 than Oak, and does not divide at the top into large branches ; conse- 

 quently, a greater portion of the tree is available for use. The writer 

 has Larch trees which, being thickly grown, have, in fifteen years, 

 attained the height of fifty feet, with a diameter of from eight to twelve 

 inches. The European Larch should never be planted upon wet land. 



The American Larch has been eulogized as fully equal to the 

 European in durability. Michau.x describes it as possessing the same 

 properties. In the British provinces, north of the St. Lawrence, and in 

 Newfoundland, where it is highly esteemed, it grows upon uplands, form- 

 ing large masses of forest. In the United States it is found only in 

 swamps — never on upland — a fact which Michaux regards as evidence that 

 the climate of the northern limits of the United States is too mild for its 

 constitution. From all the testimony the writer has been able to collect 

 from those who have used it, it appears that when grown in swamps, in 

 the United States, it is by no means remarkably durable. Whether this 

 is owing to soil or climate, is a matter of uncertainty. The European 

 Larch is found principally in the central and southern parts of Europe, 

 and is therefore better suited to the climate of Northern Illinois than the 

 American species, which reaches perfection only in a much colder climate, 

 and is, likewise, of slower growth. 



It may not be improper here to notice recently publisheil opinions 

 of men of note in regard to one or two subjects which, although not 

 strictly belonging to timber-planting, are often discussed in connection 

 with it : 



Mr. Thomas Meehan, in an article published in the New York 

 Tribune, and copied into the Prairie Farmer, criticises a paper read by 

 Prof. Hough, before the American Association, and takes the ground that 

 trees do not affect climate. He also asserts that the crops with which the 

 farmer covers the soil are a full compensation for the absence of forests as 

 far as the retention of moisture is concerned. In a notice of the report 

 of the Agricultural Department, for 1872, in the Gardeners' Afonthly, for 

 January, he uses the following language : 



" The report of the botanist goes over the various statements made 

 over and over again, on the flimsiest of foundations, that great changes 

 of climate have occurred in various parts of the world by the cutting 



